News of Plaque-Clearing Drug Tops Week of Major Advances Against Alzheimer's Disease

Clarksburg, MD, February 9, 2012—“In the last eight
days, scientists have delivered a powerful one-two punch in the
fight to defeat Alzheimer’s disease,” said Stacy Pagos
Haller, President and CEO of the American Health Assistance
Foundation (AHAF), a nonprofit that identifies and funds
exceptionally high-impact research worldwide through its
Alzheimer’s Disease Research program.

“We are excited about today’s announcement by Case
Western University researchers that a cancer drug, used in mice
studies, appears to help clear out the excess plaque found in the
Alzheimer’s-disease brain, and it does this by enhancing the
body’s natural defense mechanisms,” noted Haller.
“This follows last week’s announced discovery of how
Alzheimer’s disease spreads in the brain. The timing of these
findings coincides with new proposals in Congress and the White
House to increase federal funding for Alzheimer’s research.
This has been a big week for all who seek to end this
disease.”

In a study of mice, a research team headed by Case Western
University scientist Gary Landreth, Ph.D., found that
bexarotene—a drug currently used to combat T cell
lymphoma—helped the body clear out amyloid beta proteins.
Alzheimer’s disease arises in large part from the
body’s inability to clear these naturally occurring proteins.
As amyloid beta levels increase they tend to aggregate and
contribute to the so-called brain “plaques” found in
Alzheimer’s disease.

Bexarotene appeared to improve brain function in these mice.
Study results were published in the journal Science.

“Although this is a mouse study, the results are
encouraging, and the drug did its job with unprecedented speed, by
targeting ApoE, the primary genetic risk factor for
Alzheimer’s disease,” said AHAF Vice President for
Scientific Affairs Guy Eakin, Ph.D. “This announcement is
particularly exciting because bexarotene achieved regulatory
approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration more than a
decade ago for the treatment of cancer. That earlier approval could
speed up the prospects for human clinical trials of the drug as an
Alzheimer’s treatment.”

AHAF, which had also supported Landreth earlier in his career,
started funding the preliminary work leading to this line of
research in 2007. Currently, AHAF is funding follow-up studies in
which the Landreth team is testing the latest findings on other
“mouse models” that may better represent the human form
of Alzheimer’s disease. Positive findings could help pave the
way towards human clinical studies.

“While it is still too early to make predictions, if these
findings can be replicated in additional preclinical studies, and
then later in human clinical trials, we may have a powerful new
weapon in the battle to halt this disease,” noted Eakin.

This latest news comes only one week after an AHAF-funded
research team in Boston and another team in New York announced a
major breakthrough in understanding how Alzheimer’s disease
spreads in the brain. By learning that toxic “tau”
proteins jump from nerve cell to nerve cell, scientists can now
focus on ways to target and stop this cell-to-cell spread.

Although these reports are coming in rapid succession, the
overall progress of Alzheimer’s disease research has been
slower than that of other major diseases, due in part to
comparatively meager financial support for Alzheimer’s
disease research. “We hope this funding scenario will
improve, as promising study results stimulate our national resolve
to defeat this disease,” said Haller.

This week the Obama Administration announced it will provide an
additional $130 million in Alzheimer’s research funding over
the next two years. Last week a bipartisan group in Congress
unveiled the Spending Reductions through Innovations in Therapies
(SPRINT) Agenda Act of 2012. The legislation, introduced by
Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and
Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Ed Markey (D-MA), would spur
public and private research funding and streamline the regulatory
review of treatments.

More information on the Landreth study is available on the
Science journal website at
www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/02/08/science.1217697

The description of Landreth’s current AHAF-funded research
is found at
www.ahaf.org/landreth

For information on the SPRINT Act, visit www.ahaf.org/sprint

Details on the Obama Administration’s initiative are
available at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2012pres/02/20120207a.html

About the American Health Assistance Foundation

The American Health Assistance Foundation (www.ahaf.org) is a
nonprofit organization dedicated to finding cures for age-related
degenerative diseases by funding research worldwide under its three
programs: Alzheimer’s Disease Research, Macular Degeneration
Research, and National Glaucoma Research. AHAF also provides public
information about these diseases, including risk factors,
preventative lifestyles, current treatments, and coping
strategies.

To learn more about AHAF-supported research, visit
www.ahaf.org/research or call 1-800-437-2423. Stay connected to
breaking research and medical news by signing up for AHAF eAlerts
at www.ahaf.org/news. To follow AHAF on Twitter and Facebook visit
www.ahaf.org/connect.
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For more information, contact
Melissa May, APR
Vice President of Marketing and Communications
(301) 556-9370
mmay@ahaf.org